Related papers: From cosmic explosions to terrestrial fires?
Motivated by the occurrence of a moderately nearby supernova near the beginning of the Pleistocene, possibly as part of a long-term series beginning in the Miocene, we investigate whether nitrate rainout resulting from the atmospheric…
Deschamps and Mottez (hereafter DM) argue that the Gauss-Matuyama terrestrial magnetic field reversal may have left a vanishing main dipole moment to the field for a time of order 10,000 years. They say this may have allowed an enhanced…
Cosmic explosions dissipate energy into their surroundings on a very wide range of time-scales: producing shock waves and associated particle acceleration. The historical culprits for the acceleration of the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are…
High energy cosmic ray jets from nearby mergers or accretion induced collapse (AIC) of neutron stars (NS) that hit the atmosphere can produce lethal fluxes of atmospheric muons at ground level, underground and underwater, destroy the ozone…
The rate of ionization by cosmic rays in interstellar gas directly associated with gamma-ray emitting supernova remnants is for the first time calculated to be several orders of magnitude larger than the Galactic average. Analysis of…
It has been claimed by others that observed temporal correlations of terrestrial cloud cover with `the cosmic ray intensity' are causal. The possibility arises, therefore, of a connection between cosmic rays and Global Warming. If true, the…
"The investigation into the possible effects of cosmic rays on living organisms will also offer great interest." - Victor F. Hess, Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1936 High-energy radiation bursts are commonplace in our Universe. From nearby…
Vapor condensation with removing of latent heat by emission of characteristic frequencies allows fast droplets formation in big volumes, which becomes possible with spatial redistribution and spreading of condensation nuclei and ions formed…
An analysis is made of the manner in which the cosmic ray intensity at Earth has varied over its existence and its possible relevance to both the origin and the evolution of life. Much of the analysis relates to the 'high energy' cosmic…
We introduce neutrino astronomy from the observational fact that Nature accelerates protons and photons to energies in excess of 10^{20} and 10^{13} eV, respectively. Although the discovery of cosmic rays dates back close to a century, we…
Wildfires pose a significant natural disaster risk to populations and contribute to accelerated climate change. As wildfires are also affected by climate change, extreme wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent. Although they occur less…
In wildfires, burning pieces of ember-firebrands-are carried downstream by wind. At the time of landing, these firebrands can start secondary fires far away from the main burning unit. This phenomenon is called spotting and the secondary…
Our model involving cosmic ray acceleration in supernova remnants has been used to predict cosmic ray intensities over long periods of time on a statistical basis. If, as is highly probable, extensive air showers caused by PeV cosmic rays…
One prediction of particle acceleration in the supernova remnants in the magnetic wind of exploding Wolf Rayet and Red Super Giant stars is that the final spectrum is a composition of a spectrum $E^{-7/3}$ and a polar cap component of…
Important issues about climate change are summarized and discussed: A large body of evidence shows that the world climate is getting warmer. Climate models give a consistent explanation of this observation once human-made emissions of…
Most cosmic rays are thought to be accelerated by the shocks of supernova explosions of very massive stars. Here we review one quantitative proposal, which predicted the spectral slopes, bend and cutoff about the cosmic ray spectrum across…
The origin of high-energy cosmic rays, atomic nuclei that continuously impact Earth's atmosphere, has been a mystery for over a century. Due to deflection in interstellar magnetic fields, cosmic rays from the Milky Way arrive at Earth from…
The origin of cosmic rays holds still many mysteries hundred years after they were first discovered. Supernova remnants have for long been the most likely sources of Galactic cosmic rays. I discuss here some recent evidence that suggests…
The study of the composition of brown dwarf atmospheres helped to understand their formation and evolution. Similarly, the study of exoplanet atmospheres is expected to constrain their formation and evolutionary states. We use results from…
Cosmic rays reaching the atmosphere of an astrophysical object produce showers of secondary particles that may then escape into space. Here we obtain the flux of gamma rays and neutrinos of energy $E>10$ GeV emitted by the Sun, Jupiter and…